


We Den Our Hearts Here

by LadyLade



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Wolf Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 14:44:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4709771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLade/pseuds/LadyLade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow, having a pack of wolf pups has made Derek’s life <i>easier</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Den Our Hearts Here

**Author's Note:**

> Teen Wolf kink meme prompt: Derek accidentally adopts a litter of orphaned wolf cubs (they can be werewolves if you are so inclined, but are too young to change into human form. Maybe that can be like an age thing, like, Derek walks in one day to check on them and sees a human baby sitting there and he's like 'the fuck? Where the hell did that come from? wait a second....')
> 
> Stiles is weirdly good with the cubs. They love him. Scott is kind of a mess with them. No one leaves him with the cubs unsupervised. Jackson turns into a big pile of mush when he's with them. Danny is like 'why does Miguel have all these puppies?' Stiles explanation of 'Miguel! He does...that thing. In college. Where you study animal...behaviour. For his... dissertation. On wolves. I mean dogs.' doesn't really make sense. (Original is [here](http://teenwolfkink.livejournal.com/2069.html?thread=782357#t782357). Livejournal post is [here](http://ladylade.livejournal.com/11594.html).)

Derek hates his life sometimes.

He doesn’t even know how this happened. One moment he was picking up pamphlets on wolf behavior at the closest wildlife preserve (if Scott and Jackson won’t listen to Derek—or Stiles—then he’s going make this as embarrassing as possible for them), and the next minute he’s discussing wolves with one of the caretakers. And then suddenly he’s got five wolf pups in his back seat as he’s driving home. (On _towels_ , of course, because balls of fluff or no, nothing is allowed to ruin his seats.)

Aren’t there wild animal laws or adoption wait periods that make this illegal? But Derek’s teenage pack must be influencing him too much, because he doesn’t even try to take them back.

>>> 

Scott comes over, which means _Stiles_ comes over, despite the numerous times Derek has tried to…dissuade him. (Derek had tried the whole, _you’re not pack_ thing, even though it’s not really true, but Stiles had chosen that moment to become the most insightful person ever, practically _glowing_ as he exclaimed, “Oh my god, I totally am! You lying, lying sour wolf!”) The pups are blockaded in the kitchen, which makes Derek _very_ grateful that he’s rebuilt the house because that means he actually _has_ a linoleum floor in his kitchen, which is much easier to clean piss off of than rotting boards.

The moment Stiles catches sight of the pups, though, it’s like he’s been given the answer to _life_ or something. Derek thought he’d seen how hyperactive the kid could get before, but _Jesus_.

“Ohmygod _puppies!_ ” Stiles says, and then he leaps over the baby-gate and into the kitchen.

_Leaps_ over it, like he’s a deer or something. Derek didn’t even know that Stiles was capable of not being clumsy, much less being _graceful_.

It sets Derek on edge, because it took even _Derek_ some time before the pups warmed up to him, and Derek’s afraid that they’ll take one look at Stiles and see _squeak toy_.

Except, when Derek steps into the kitchen and finds Stiles on the floor, they’re not chewing on him. They’re _licking_ him and squirming happily and rolling around on Stiles like Stiles is the best patch of dirt _ever_.

What the hell is going on?

“Making friends, Stiles?” Scott says from where he’s poked his head into the kitchen. He’s acting like this _isn’t_ the most abnormal thing he’s ever seen.

Stiles just makes a happy noise, and the pups yap excitedly, licking at his jaw and tugging at his shirt.

The ‘ _what the fuckery_ ’ must be obvious on Derek’s face, because Scott says, “Stiles is really good with animals, especially when they’re young. When we get really shy or scared puppies at work, Doc asks Stiles to babysit them for a few days so that it’ll be easier to find homes for them.”

Okay. It’ll take some work to fit in this new ‘Animal Whisperer’ Stiles with the Stiles that Derek currently knows, but he can do it. Maybe.

But the babysitting thing, well, that’s promising.

>>> 

It turns out that, while the entire pack would like to watch over the pups, Stiles is the only person that Derek actually _trusts_ to do so. Scott is complete mess; every time that he’s left alone with them for more than five minutes, something gets broken and, more often than not, Scott gets peed on (how Scott is able to work in an animal clinic, Derek doesn’t understand). Jackson fares better with them, but he’s also the biggest pushover in the _world_ and everything they do is completely adorable, even if it’s chewing up Derek’s new kitchen cabinets.

And sure, Stiles may be a pushover with them, but he doesn’t let them chew on anything except their toys.

Stiles probably spends more time with the pups than Scott and Jackson combined; every day after lacrosse practice, Stiles is _there_ , even if Derek doesn’t want him to be. Stiles also, much to Derek’s annoyance, names them. It happens without Derek knowing, and by the time Derek finds out the pups already answer to the names.

“Who said you could name them?” Derek says, and tries to glare Stiles down.

“Stop pouting, I take care of them just as much as you do,” Stiles says, and initiates tug-of-war with the runt of the group.

Derek would argue, but Stiles is right. Except about the pouting part. Derek does not pout.

The runt is Stiles’ favorite, a little grey pup with charcoal streaking back from his face and onto the top half of his body. He named him Timber, and the largest puppy, a grey with tan tints who picks on Timber, ended up with the name Brutus. (“It’s not funny,” Derek says when Stiles keeps trying to insist it is.) He named the two light greys Artemis and Apollo, because the only real distinction between them is their sex and their eyes. All of the pups’ eyes have changed golden except Artemis’, and though she’s still young enough that it might happen, Derek has a feeling that her eyes will stay blue. The last pup, a quiet thing whose coat is black, gets named Fell.

“C’mon, these are the most badass names _ever_ ,” Stiles says.

“There is something wrong with you,” Derek says, but after Stiles leaves Derek calls the pups by the names Stiles has given them.

>>> 

This is why Stiles gets to look after the pups: he will corral them in the back of his jeep and watch them at his house. When Derek wants to have a training session in or around his house, Stiles takes the pups because they’re too young to follow the pack when they hunt, and usually the sessions inside the house freak them out.

Jackson makes a joke about marital separation and custody, and the glare Derek sends the Beta has him in his car before the front door finishes shutting.

Stiles even watches them when he has lab homework with Danny, which means that Derek had to buy Danny two pairs of shoelaces before the kid got smart and started leaving his shoes _outside_ of Stiles’ room.

(“Why are there puppies?” Danny had asked the first time.

“Uhh,” Derek heard Stiles say from Derek’s perch on the roof, “they’re De-Miguel’s. He’s, uh, he’s doing a study for college. Dissertation! He’s doing his dissertation on early…early behavior development.”)

It means that, because Derek is _not_ the kind of asshole to need Stiles to watch the pups at last minute, pack meetings and training session have become regular, instead of the haphazard sessions that Derek pulled together whenever he felt the Betas needed to be shown that no, they _aren’t_ in complete control of themselves. Now sessions happen at the same times and same days each week, and pack meetings are set a week in advanced. The structure seems to work even better than Derek’s approach before, especially with Stiles badgering out of Derek what Derek thought the Betas needed the most work with, and then coming back a day later with a monthly schedule that organized each session in color codes for different activities. It scares Derek, because he didn’t even know that Stiles _had_ organizational skills like this.

Somehow, having a pack of wolf pups has made Derek’s life _easier_.

>>> 

Alison comes over one sunny day with a camera, wanting to take pictures of the pups. Derek doesn’t mind, as Stiles is watching over them in the yard and he’s mostly in the kitchen hacking up frozen venison.

Two days later, there’s a stack of photos on his porch and one framed photo of a shade-dappled Stiles, walking the tree-line with all five pups trailing behind him like goddamn goslings. Derek rolls his eyes, but he puts the picture up on the mantle anyway.

>>> 

There’s a horrible thunderstorm, which would be okay, except that there’s also golf-ball-sized hail.

The pups are all in Derek’s bed, and while they’re not big, at just over three months they’re also not small anymore. All five of them have finally been housetrained (Brutus was a stubborn, stubborn pup about that, and Derek understands why Stiles has nicknamed him “Brute”), so they’re allowed the run of the house as long as someone (Derek or Stiles) is in the house with them. And even though the pups have been through thunderstorms (Artemis and Apollo like to watch lightning at the window), the sound of hail snapping branches is like a gunshot.

With five pups trying to suffocate him and thunder and hail trying to kill the entirety of Beacon Hills, Derek’s lucky he hears Stiles’ jeep pull up.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Derek says after a moment.

He manages to wriggle out of the bed, and when he leaves the pups don’t follow him downstairs. Stiles is already putting his slicker in the kitchen sink, and Derek can smell the bruises forming on his shoulders from getting hit with ice chunks.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Derek says, and Stiles jumps.

“Are the pups okay? Were they inside when the storm started? They’re terrified, aren’t they?” Stiles says, mouth and hands flailing a mile a minute.

It creeps Derek out sometimes, that Stiles seems to know when the pups are in trouble or are scared (this is in no way the first time that he’s done this; last time Timber got his paw caught under a log and Stiles drove from school, in the middle of the day, to hover over him).

“They’re fine,” Derek says.

“Where are they?” It’s rare when Stiles can be deterred, unless Derek distracts him with something shiny or tootsie rolls.

“In bed, where I should be,” Derek says, then, “goddamnit,” when Stiles goes sprinting up the stairs.

Derek sighs, scrubs his hands over his face, and follows the kid. When he makes it to his room, Stiles’ shoes are in the middle of the floor and he’s curled up on the bed with the pups trying to burrow into him.

“Get off my bed,” Derek says, and then he has six pairs of eyes glaring at him and judging his entire existence.

“They’re _scared_ ,” Stiles says, as if Derek is the one who has terrified them.

It’s then that Derek realizes that, somehow, Stiles has become the den mother. Oh no. No. This has not happened. Derek is not essentially stuck in what Jackson somewhat accurately described as a marital separation with _Stiles_.

“Fuck,” Derek says. It’s late and this is giving Derek a headache.

“What? What happened? What’s wrong?” Stiles says.

Derek just shakes his head and climbs on the bed.

“You better stay on your side of the bed, and you better stay quiet,” Derek says as he finds a comfortable position.

“You, I—oh,” Stiles says, as Derek resolutely keeps his eyes closed, “yeah, I. Yeah, okay.”

>>> 

Stiles does _not_ keep quiet, as the kid (unsurprisingly) mumbles in his sleep, and _no one_ keeps to their side of the bed. Derek wakes up in the morning to sunlight and a tangle of pups and Stiles, all wrapped around him. He tries to wake Stiles, or even get the boy _off_ of his chest, but Stiles sleeps like he’s a hibernating bear.

Derek sighs, and glares back when Artemis glares, one-eyed, at him for jostling her; then she falls asleep again between one breath and the next. Derek decides this isn’t the worst thing in the world to wake up to, and follows her into sleep.


End file.
